Emanuel Ikonomov is a Bulgarian writer, journalist, publisher, critic, and translator. He was born on August 26, 1960, in Sofia. He graduated with a degree in Cybernetics from the Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany.
He made his print debut as a translator in 1979 and as an author in 1980. He has written one novel and over 320 short stories published across 26 collections—predominantly in the science fiction and crime fiction genres—as well as critical essays and articles. His works have been translated and published in the UK, Germany, Spain, Russia, Serbia, and Greece.
In 2000, he received the Eurocon Award for his contribution to the development of science fiction. In 2002, he was awarded the Grand Atanas Mandadzhiev Prize for crime short story, and in 2003, he won the Critics' Choice Award for crime mystery "Inspector Strezov."
He is the founder of the New Bulgarian Science Fiction book series and the Argus – Science Fiction through 100 Eyes competition, as well as the annual science fiction arts publication Bulgarian Sci-Fi Vayaniya. He is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers, the Union of Translators in Bulgaria, and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists. He served as Vice President of the International Association of Crime Writers (AIEP/IACW) from 2000 onwards and as its President from 2013 to 2021.
Representative collections of his crime fiction include Accidental Detective (2002) and Accidental Bandit (2010). Prominent among his science fiction works are the collections Icosahedrons (2005, winner of a competition by the National Book Centre at the Ministry of Culture), Don't Ask the Price (2010), and The Last Dragon (2021). While crime and science fiction are skillfully intertwined in his novel Beyond and Further (2011) and the cycle The Secrets of the Small Town (2021), his collections Rendezvous (2021), Impromptu (2022), and Déjà Vu (2026) offer a rich, colorful tapestry of Emanuel Ikonomov's literary output through short stories, grotesques, impressions, fables, satires, miniatures, novellas, and essays.
